Tejo Power Station
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The Tejo Power Station was a thermoelectric power plant owned by the Companhias Reunidas de Gás e Electricidade (CRGE – United Gas and Electric Companies), which supplied power to the city and entire Lisbon region.
It is located in the Belém district of Portugal's capital and its activity spanned from 1909 to 1972, although as of 1951 it was used as a reserve power station. Over time, it underwent several adjustments and expansions, going through many different phases of construction and production.
It now houses the Museu da Electricidade (Electricity Museum)
Introduction
[edit]The original Tejo Power Station, whose buildings no longer exist, was built in 1909 and operated until 1921. In 1914, construction began on the low pressure boiler buildings and the machinery room, which were later expanded several times. Finally, in 1941 construction on the high pressure boiler building took place, the power station's largest structure, which was expanded in 1951 with the addition of another boiler.
Despite operating for the last time in 1972, it was only officially shut down in 1975, thus proving its great importance to the city of Lisbon as industrial archaeological heritage. For this reason, in 1986 it was classified as an Asset of Public Interest. Since 1990, the Tejo Power Station is open as the Electricity Museum.
The reconstruction of Lisbon's Central Tejo, a former coal-fired power plant redeveloped as the Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology (MAAT), captures the complexities of repurposing industrial heritage for contemporary cultural uses.
Central Tejo's adaptive reuse— marked by structural reinvention, museological reinterpretation, and superposition of old and new—is a microcosm for wider controversies in heritage conservation. While the interventions succeed as functional revitalization and access measures, they generate concerns around authenticity, dilution of narrative, and industrial grit vs. spectacle tensions. Through analyzing these dynamics, this analysis seeks to determine if the restoration does justice to the building's legacy as a monument to engineering and labor or unknowingly reduces it to a sterilized space for modern cultural consumption.
Territorial Framework
[edit]The Central Tejo, located on the north bank of the Tagus River (Rio Tejo) in Lisbon's Belém district, is a retired coal-burning electricity generating plant turned Electricity Museum (Museu da Eletricidade). Its locational context is described as on the estuary of the Tagus, where river edge and alluvial ground intersect with urban and environmental pressures. The location is in a high-density area, limited by wide avenues like "Avenida Brasília" and "Avenida da Índia" that link it to the Lisbon center as well as to the symbolic locations of Belém. The riverside position subjects the building to Atlantic climatic conditions, with dominant northwestern and westerly winds, bringing marine aerosols and humidity towards the continent. These winds mix with the microclimate of the Tagus estuary, contributing to the creation of high humidity and salt deposits in the air.
The immediate urban context comprises mixed-use developments, cultural institutions, and transit hubs, including the Belém train station, that connect the site to Lisbon's larger transportation network. The river itself continues to be the focus of maritime usage, with freight and passenger ships traveling up the estuary, while green areas surrounding it such as the Belém Gardens oder vegetative buders from urban heat and particulate pollution. The soils at the site, alluvial deposits, are permeable by nature, with groundwater levels controlled by tidal flow in the Tagus. Projections of climate change indicate that higher sea level and more intense storms may enhance hydrological pressures in the region.
As a cultural institution, the museum balances its industrial architectural heritage— characterized by brick facades, steel trusses, and extensive glazing—with modern-day public access requirements. Its adaptive reuse has brought indoor climate control systems to manage indoor conditions, especially in areas containing historic machinery and exhibitions. The structure of the building, as a testament to early 20th-century engineering, engages with Lisbon's temperate climate, with seasonal temperature variations that see mild winters and warm summers.
Urban development in Belém, including existing infrastructure projects and tourism-oriented development, dictates the context of the site. The possibility of altered local drainage due to new construction may influence the museum, while pedestrian tradic from tourists adects operating pressures on the building. The regulatory context of the site, as in a protected historic district, establishes constraints for modifications to the building and its context. Conservation work is enhanced by an interdisciplinary approach, though there continues to be challenge in reconciling preservation objectives with evolving urban and environmental pressures.
Historic Framework
[edit]Early Beginnings (1909–1921)
The original Tejo Power Station was built in 1909 and designed by Belgian engineer Lucien Neu. Executed by the French firm Vieillard & Touzet, the plant housed fifteen Belleville boilers and five generator sets producing 7.75 MW by 1912. It remained active until 1921, later serving as a storage and workshop facility before being demolished in 1938.
Expansion and Low-Pressure Era (1914–1930)
Construction of the current plant began in 1914 with the erection of low-pressure boiler and machinery rooms. This phase saw three key expansions: initial infrastructure (1914–1921), a new nave and coal system (1924–1928), and a final expansion with larger boiler rooms and improved machinery (1928–1930). By the end of this period, the plant operated eleven low-pressure boilers and a variety of generator sets from major European manufacturers.
High-Pressure Phase and Modernization (1938–1951)
To meet growing demand and integrate high-pressure steam technology, the original 1909 building was demolished in 1938 to make way for the high-pressure boiler house. Completed in stages until 1951, it featured large Babcock & Wilcox boilers and AEG turbo-alternators. Additional facilities included a water treatment unit and new workshop spaces, acquired by absorbing the adjacent former sugar refinery property.
Decline and Closure (1951–1975)
The plant’s role diminished following the 1944 National Electrification Law, which prioritized hydroelectric production. With the opening of the Castelo do Bode dam in 1951, Central Tejo transitioned into a reserve station. It remained operational—though intermittently—until its final activation in 1972 and was officially decommissioned in 1975.
Cultural Transformation and Museum Era
Musealization (1980s–2000s)
In 1981, the complex began its transformation into a museum dedicated to electricity. Restoration efforts focused on preserving the original architectural elements and eliminating incongruous additions. Exhibitions such as Industrial Archaeology (1984) and One Hundred Years of Electricity (1989) highlighted the station’s machinery as core interpretive assets. The museum opened to the public in 1990, with further renovations between 2001 and 2005 ushering in a more dynamic, educational museology.
Integration and Renovation (1990s–Present)
Architects Tomás Taveira and Carlos Moreno led urban integration projects that removed boundary walls and improved public access. From 2016 to 2023, curators Pedro Gadanho and Beatrice Laenza oversaw interventions aimed at maximizing spatial flexibility while preserving the site’s industrial character, including metal walkways and original brickwork.
Significance and Legacy
Central Tejo is architecturally significant for its Flemish-influenced industrial design—most notably its harmonious use of iron structures clad in brick—and for representing successive technological eras of power generation. Its transformation into a museum conserves not only the building and machinery but also the historical and socio-economic narratives of Lisbon’s electrification. Classified as an Asset of Public Interest since 1986, Central Tejo stands today as a compelling example of heritage reuse, bridging industrial pasts with contemporary cultural engagement.
Architectural Ensemble
[edit]After continuous transformations and expansions over the years, the Tejo Power Station's architectural ensemble represents the masterful conservation of a large manufacturing structure from the first half of the 20th century. The entire set of buildings is in perfect aesthetic harmony thanks to the use of an iron structure covered in brick on all the structures. Despite this, there are differences in style between the low pressure naves and the high pressure building.
Operation
[edit]The operating principle of a thermoelectric power station is based on the burning of fuel to produce vapour which then turns an electric current generator. In theory, this is simple to carry out, but in practice it requires a complex combination of machines, circuits and logistics.
At the Tejo Power Station, the main fuel was coal, which arrived by river and was unloaded into the square with the same name in order to then be deposited in the crusher and sent to the mixing silos. From there, the coal was fed onto the conveyor belt running along the top of the building, and dropped onto the combustion belt inside the furnace. There it was burnt at a temperature of approximately 1200 °C. The heat thereby generated would turn the water passing through the boiler's inner tubes into steam, which was then carried to the turbo-alternators. The water used here travelled in a closed circuit and was chemically pure. For this, it went through a purification and filtering process to avoid deteriorating the station's equipment.
Thus, the steam would travel in the tubes at high pressure (38 kg/cm2) to the generating sets, where the turbine would transform the steam's thermal energy into mechanical energy, and the alternator would transform the mechanical energy it received from the turbine into electric power, producing a 10.500 V triphasic electric current with a 50 Hz frequency, which after passing through the plant's substation, was distributed among consumers.
In turn, after running the turbines, the steam was sent to the condensers where it was turned back into water in order to be reused in the boilers. The hot steam returned to its liquid state through contact with the cold walls of the condenser's inner tubes, which carried water from the Tagus river. For that reason, the river water never came into direct contact with the purified water used as work fluid. From the condenser, the water was pumped back to the boilers, thereby closing the cycle.
The Plant’s Working Conditions
[edit]The plant's operation would have been impossible without the people who worked there for generations. It was necessary to have a strict division of tasks and a shift work system in order to guarantee the station operated without interruption. The close to five hundred workers who laboured all day and night fulfilled more than forty-five different roles. Those jobs ranged from coal unloaders to the most specialised engineers and technicians, with workers in the boiler rooms and carpentry and ironwork workshops in between.
The hardest jobs were those involving coal burning, both in the boiler room and in the boiler dust (ash) room, with workers having to endure extremely high temperatures due to the coal burning inside the boilers, the dust originating from combustion and the deafening noise throughout the entire work shift. Even so, it was the boiler room that occupied the largest number of workers and had the greatest number of different tasks. It was here that the chief technical Engineer, technical engineers, head operators, sub-head operators, operators, stokers and workers (boiler dust extraction), all endured extremely harsh working conditions, especially the latter.
Value of the Heritage
[edit]
The Tejo Power Station has huge heritage value, not only in architectural or archaeological terms, but also from a historic, social, anthropological and economic perspective. The heritage left behind throughout the power station's activity is undeniable. It was the main power station in Lisbon and Portugal until the mid-20th century. Its reach covered the entire city and the Tagus Valley, lighting up streets and homes and providing factories with power. Without the Tejo Power Station, Lisbon's history would have been very different. It was the invisible factor in the city's growth and expansion in the 20th century, the cornerstone for regional industrialisation and the first electrified railway line in the country (Lisbon – Cascais).
At the same time, the Tejo Power Station was crucial to Lisbon's modernisation. Several generations worked and suffered by the boilers so that others could turn on the lights in their homes, walk through artificially lit streets at night, or travel comfortably in electric trams that climbed Lisbon's precipitous slopes. Aside from that, within the station's complex, there is also a set of assets that, by remaining intact, made this old thermoelectric power plant survive the deindustrialisation of the Belém district, thus making it unique in the country and perhaps all of Europe.
- Real estate assets. The Tejo Power Station manufacturing plant (classified as an Asset of Public Interest since 1986), with the low pressure and machinery room structures (1914-1930), high pressure and water room structures (1938-1951), and the plant's numerous workshops, whose set of buildings (which once belonged to the old sugar refinery and date back to the end of the 19th-beginning of the 20th century) are today the museum's Documentation Centre and Storage.
- Movable property. The museum currently houses four Babcock & Wilcox high pressure boilers dated 1941 and 1951 and two AEG turbo alternators dated 1942 with the respective condensers. Furthermore, there are coolers, circuit-breakers and measuring apparatuses in the machinery room, blowers, filters, pumps and distillers in the water room, all dating back to the 1940s. Other items include coal bucket elevators, trolleys, silos and carpentry and ironwork materials. In the storage and garden areas, there are also generator sets from other power plants, speed regulators, valves and several items associated with Lisbon’s public lighting, as well as household appliances of various periods, types and categories.
Restoration Intervention and the Kunsthalle addition (2016-2017)
[edit]Central Tejo and MAAT: A Fusion of Heritage and Contemporary Culture
The 2016 transformation of Lisbon’s Central Tejo marked a pivotal moment in the site's evolution—from a dormant thermoelectric facility into a core component of the Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology (MAAT). This redevelopment redefined the power station as a cultural landmark, aligning industrial heritage with contemporary public engagement.
Industrial Preservation Meets Contemporary Use
The restoration emphasized conservation of the building’s original character while adapting it for new functions. Key interventions included structural reinforcement of the early 20th-century architecture, the careful integration of accessibility features, and the reinterpretation of former industrial voids as pathways and exhibition zones. Original machinery was retained as part of the museological narrative, offering tangible insights into Lisbon’s energy history while facilitating immersive visitor experiences.
Urban Reconnection
In tandem with architectural renewal, MAAT’s landscape design—led by Vladimir Djurovic—removed physical barriers between the site and its urban context. Former enclosing walls were replaced by open plazas, gardens, and public walkways that draw the city toward the Tagus River. This reconnection reestablished the power station not as an isolated relic, but as an accessible civic space embedded within Lisbon’s urban rhythm.
A Dual Identity and Cultural Role
Together with the adjoining AL_A-designed Kunsthalle, the complex forms a dialogue between past and future. Where Central Tejo’s preserved brick and machinery speak to Portugal’s industrial age, the adjacent Kunsthalle’s flowing ceramic surfaces and river-reflective form signal Lisbon’s forward-looking creative vision.
Legacy
MAAT’s revitalization of Central Tejo is now seen as a catalyst in Lisbon’s broader cultural resurgence. By merging historic infrastructure with experimental arts programming, the site not only honors its origins but activates a platform for contemporary expression. Central Tejo has emerged not only as a museum but as a cultural engine—one that anchors Lisbon’s riverside identity and symbolizes its evolving global presence.
Bibliography
[edit]- BARBOSA, Pires, CRUZ, Luís, FARIA, Fernando, A Central Tejo: A fábrica que electrificou Lisboa, Museu da Electricidade and ed. Bizânzio, Lisboa, 2007
- COSTA, Vítor, “Central Tejo. Breve resumo da sua evolução e dos seus processos tecnológicos (1906-1972)”, in Revista Arqueologia & Indústria, (2-3), pp. 149–160, Associação Portuguesa de Arqueologia Industrial (APAI), Lisboa, 1999/2000
- SANTOS, António, “Arquitectura de Tijolo e Indústria. A Introdução do Tijolo Sílico Calcário em Portugal (1903-1913)”, in Revista Arqueologia & Indústria, (1), pp. 101–114, Associação Portuguesa de Arqueologia Industrial (APAI), Lisboa, 1998
- SANTOS, António, “A Arquitectura da Electricidade em Portugal (1906-1911)”, in Revista Arqueologia & Indústria, (2-3), pp. 123–148, Associação Portuguesa de Arqueologia Industrial (APAI), Lisboa, 1999/2000
- Revista Indústria Portuguesa, nº. 101, 118, 153, 164, 171 and 179
- Wikienergia. Categories and subcategories from Central Tejo, Museu da Electricidade, Acervo and Centro de Documentação. Consulted in May 2010
- Silva, Miguel Freitas. Os Tempos da Central Tejo. Prefácio de Paulo Pereira. Lisbon: [Sistema Solar, Crl], [Dezembro, 2023].
- MAAT - Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology - Lisbon, AL_A Architects [ARCHIVE]. from MAAT - AL_A Project Description.pdf
- A Central, EDP Foundation (2017). from https://www.fundacaoedp.pt/pt/conteudo/central
See also
[edit]External links
[edit]- (in Portuguese) Wikienergia. Category Central Tejo[usurped]
- (in Portuguese) Patrimonial card/IGESPAR
(Tejo Power Station).